Table 12 Measurement of the Categorized Prayer Life

# Increase 0 381 11 113 155 82

% Increase 0 30 0.7 7 9 4
Jul., 1992 1,270 Jul., 1992 1,270

Dec., 1992 2,012 Average 1,717

# Increase 747 # Increase 447

% Increase 59 % Increase 35

In conclusion, the membership stabilization can

be seen by their active evangelism and service for the church. In other words, their regular attendance at and participation in the church worship services and church activities such as in evangelism, ministries, disciple training, and Bible study reflect stabilization because unstable members are not willing to work in the church.
Emotional Mobilization

Faith has two aspects, namely intellectual and emotional. In a sense, spiritual factors support emotional faith. Christian faith-life consists, therefore, of these two factors: intellectual and emotional. Intellectual faith depends upon the knowledge of the Word of God. Emotional faith depends upon feeling and passion which has been opposed by some philosophers (Rome Harre and Roger Lamb 1984, 181). Faith needs these two factors.

Emotional mobilization means not so much a state of intellectual mobilization as that of a feeling-mobilization of personality in faith. It means a state of enthusiasm in emotion and spirituality in the Christian life.

Looking into the New Testament, the early Church was full of emotional and spiritual factors of faith (Act. 2:1-13; 2:43-46). This enthusiastic state of the Christian faith-life was the emotional mobilization which could give the dynamics of evangelism for church growth.

As a result of implementing the disciple making program the Elim Christian Reformed Church was in an enthusiastic state which was emotional and spiritual mobilization as a by-product of the disciple making program.

In order to see this, it is necessary to go back to the Tables. Table 1 (p. 119) shows the increase in the number of participants at the Sunday afternoon service, which is an enthusiastic praise service with holy songs such as hymns and gospel songs. In this service the hearts of the members were touched by and were full of the Holy Spirit. They were in a state of being mobilized with emotion. This was the best state because it encouraged and mobilized them for church growth.

More importantly, the students of the Disciple Making College were led into prayer and were moved by the Holy Spirit. Then they had an experience of mobilized emotion, which made them feel an impulse for evangelism which promoted the growth of the church.

They prayed much more than before and, therefore, they were mobilized with emotion. Table 12 (p. 138) shows the number and increase rate of the prayer of the Disciple College students. The number of their prayers increased while they confessed that they had not offered so much prayer for the growth of their church before.

As shown on the Table 12 (p. 138), the increase rate of their prayers shows a 35% increase on the average.

This data shows that the members of the church were mobilized with emotion as a by-product of the implementation of the disciple making program. The church grew qantitatively and qualitatively through their emotional mobilization.

The results of implementation of the disciple making program for the period of six months have produced the growth of the Elim Christian Reformed Church in three dimensions: in number, in maturity, and in finance.

Analysis of the data of the results which was designed,

collected and treated reveals the folowings:

1. On the basis of the results of testing the hypothesis I, the quantitative (numerical) growth of the Elim Christian Reformed Church through the disciple making program for the period of six months from July, 1992, to December, 1992, shows a 44% increase on the whole average (Table 1, Tables 7-10).

2. On the basis of the results of testing the hypothesis II, the qualitative (spiritual) growth of the Elim Christian Reformed Church through the disciple making program for the period of six months from July, 1992, to December, 1992, shows a great deal of maturity in Christian life. This fact was supported by the remarkable improvement of their Christian lives (Tables 1-6, Table 9).

3. On the basis of the result of testing the hypothesis III, the financial (giving) growth of the Elim Christian Reformed Church through the disciple making program for the period of six months from July, 1992, to December, 1992, shows a 16% increase on the whole average (Table 4).

In conclusion, there is no doubt that the disciple making program affected the growth of the Elim Christian Reformed Church as well as the participants in the program as disciplers or disciples (students) in quantity and quality, in spite of a short training term.

Conclusions

The writer's purpose in implementing this disciple making program was to promote the Elim Christian Reformed

Church to grow quantitatively, qualitatively, and financially.

If a church expects any kind of growth, the pastor should demonstrate his philosophy of ministry, show his vision to the congregation, and develop it. He should also identify his vision with his congregation, and then he should set the goals of church growth, motivate and mobilize people to be involved in the Great Commission.

Using these strategic principles he should set up the strategy for the growth of the church. This strategy must be planned on the basis of the principles of the Bible and on a theological foundation.

Making disciples is an excellent strategy for promoting church growth. The disciple making program must be carefully matched with the strategic principles of church growth for the effective growth of the church. Disciple making programs should be profitable for the religious growth (spiritual maturity) of the participants as well as the whole church.

Prior to the begining of this program, it is very important for the planner (pastor) to understand the biblical and theological principles related to the disciple making strategy. First of all, it is important to understand what disciple is, what discipleship is, and what discipling is.

A disciple is a Christian who is growing up to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, is achieving fruit in evangelism, and is working in follow-up to conserve his fruit as defined Gray W. Kuhne (Kuhne 1978, 13).

Discipleship means that the disciple has the same goals and objectives as his Master. In a word, discipleship means the Lord-servant relationship (Matt. 16:16) and commitment to disciples (Matt. 28:19-20; Act. 1:8).

Discipling is to train the people selected by God for His work to spread the gospel throughout the world. It means that the disciples are trained to carry out the Great Commission.

In order to accomplish the task for church growth, the pastor should set up the goal and involve the laypeople of the church in his ministry. After organization of the institution, he should teach, train, and transform the laypeople to go and make their own disciples for the growth of the church, and the results must be measured by the data such as in questionaires, documentations, and public and personal interview records designed, collected, and treated for the measurement.

The results of the implementation of the disciple making program must be evaluated for the future growth of the church. These can normally be evaluated at three levels: the pastor himself, the disciple college students, and the congregation of the church. To prove these things, the writer collected the questionaires from the congregation as well as the disciple college students.

Firstly, this program gave the writer a useful experience for his minisrty. He could read many books on the practical ministry such as church growth, disciple making, church leadership, church management, and other theological works. He could arrange those theological systems, and obtain much knowledge in those fields.

Also, he could gradually gain more maturity in his Christian life, and develop his ministerial abilities more than before.

Secondly, this program made the disciple college students obtain the knowledge of the Christian life in the church, home, and society.

In order to know these things Table 13 (p. 146) was tabulated from their self-evaluations indicated in the questionaires from A-1 to A-5. Of course, it is a very subjective evaluation because they evaluated themselves. Nevertheless, it is very important because faith may involve their subjective feelings as its emotional factor in relation with God.

Table 13 presents the descriptive statistics of the self-evaluation of the disciple college students on their faith. The figures in the statistics are the number of students who thought that their faith grew each month. Looking into the statistics of Table 13, it is seen that their faith grew every month.

Table 13
Measurement through the Self-evaluations

of the Disciple College Students

July 1992 to December 1992

Elim Disciple College
Statistics between July 1992 and December 1992

Category Period (Month)

Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.

Attendance 9 10 10 10 11 12

Prayer life 10 10 10 10 11 11

Bible study aw 8 8 8 9 10 11

Giving & Service 6 7 8 8 10 11

Evangelism 1 3 5 5 5 7

Total 34 38 41 42 47 52
Jul. 1992 34

Dec. 1992 52

# Increase 18

% Increase 53
In particular, the growth rate of their faith between July, 1992, and December, 1992, shows a 53% increase. After all, it shows that they recognized that their faith had been increasingly growing every month.

Table 14 (p. 147) presents the descriptive statistics of information on the interviews with the graduates of the Elim Disciple College, which was held in the pastoral office at 2:00 pm just after the graduation ceremony on May 23, 1992.

Table 14
Measurement of Faith-state of the Disciple College

Students through Interviews and Self-evaluations

August 1992 to may 1993

Elim DC
Evaluation on the Interviews with the Students

Contents of interview Response

Very much Much Little

1. Do you think your faith-life has

grown than before this program?

(1) quantitative (participations) 9 2 2

(2) qualitative (spirituality) 10 1 2

(3) financial (giving-life) 4 7 2

2. How do you think of the method

of this disciple making program?

(1) theoretical study. 13 0 0

(2) practical exercise. 6 2 5

(3) theoretical-practical training. 9 2 2
3. Do you think your faith had grown

step by step every month? (1) attendance. 12 1 0

(2) prayer-life. 11 1 1

(3) giving-life. 4 6 3

4. On the whole, do you think that

your religious personality has

been improved than before?

(1) thinking (way of thinking). 11 0 2

(2) talking (talking manner). 10 1 2

(3) acting (attitude of action). 2 8 3

5. Lastly, do you want to continue to

be trained at the higher grade?

(1) disciple graduate school. 9 2 2

(2) disciple seminary. 4 5 4

(3) other programs. 6 3 4

The 13 students in the class were interviewed at that time. Looking into Table 14 above, it shows that all of the students had valued the results of implementing the disciple making program.

In particular, theoretical study (2-1) shows a good result of 100%, while practical exercise (2-2) shows an underestimation (50%). This reflects that the discipleship training needs to keep a balance between the theoretical principle and the practical training. At any rate, it is no doubt that this discipleship training had an effect on the growth of the Elim Christian Reformed Church as well as the students of the Elim Disciple College.

Thirdly, this program had a good effect on the congregation. In other words, the congregation had been encouraged by the disciple making activities. Most of the church members had supported the disciple making program in the church as seen in the results of making up the questionaires on the disciple making program.

Table 15 (p. 149) presents the descriptive statistics on the questionaire of the members of the church randomized by the writer without any planned intention in order to get an objective information about the results of the disciple making program which was over on December, 1992.

Particularly, item 10 in the questionaire (Table 14) was supported by 95% (very much) of the respondents, while the people who thought that this program had an effect on
the growth of the church were 65% (very much). This shows

that the program was supported by the congregation.

Table 15
Church Membership Perception Questionaire

after the Disciple Making Program

October 1993

Elim CRC

Responses to the Questions on the Program

Questions Responses

Content of Questions Very Much Little Very much little

1. This program helped the

growth of the church. 13 5 2 0

2. This program helped the

trained people. 16 4 0 0
3. This program influenced

other congregations. 9 4 6 0

4. This program motivated

the congregation grow. 12 6 2 0

5. This program needs for

an individuals to grow. 19 1 0 0

6. This program needs to the

staffs for their mission. 18 1 1 0

7. This program needs for the

raity to mature in faith. 18 1 1 0

8. This program is very good

for both of sex. 18 0 1 0

9. This program is very good

for whole age. 16 3 1 0

10. This program is desirable

to be used in the future. 19 1 0 0

(1) Very little = 0% - 25%

(2) Little = 25% - 50%

(3) Much = 50% - 75%

(4) Very much = 75% - 100%

It is noticeable that the influence of this program on the other congregations was no more than 45% (little). Another noticeable thing is that there is no one who underestimated the disciple making program even though some of them have not participated in this program yet.

In conclusion, it is no exageration to say that the disciple making program must be estimated as highly successful in promoting church growth.

Especially in numerical growth, the disciple making program did decisively promote the Elim Christian Reformed Church to grow directly and indirectly (29 members: 95%), while natural increase was little (2 members: 5%) in spite of moving the church to the City of Garden Grove, Southern California expecting to get more people (see Table 9, p. 132 and Table 11, p. 135).

Recommendations

Having studied this project, the writer now feels keenly interested in writing a book for the pastors of the local churches, with which harmonizes both the theoretical and practical issues, so to speak, with which one can see the connection between the two. Even though there are many books in the field of this project, most of them, by the reading experiences of the writer, seem to have dealt with the two aspects separately. Now there is need for a book which harmonizes them. Today's pastors feel strongly the need for such a book. The writer expects for someone to write such a book as soon as possible for the pastors of local churches.

Based on the results of this project the following recommendations are given:

1. More systematic study in the field of church growth through the disciple making program is needed.

2. To complete the best work in the field of disciple making it is crucially important to survey the field of ministry in which successful cases may be carefully investigated.

3. It seems to be advisable to set up further detailed hypotheses for healthy church growth, for instance, church stabilization and mobilization.

4. A more effective methodology for discipleship training for church growth may be presented in the future.

5. Questionaires, especially interviews, may be effectively recorded on paper, cassettes or video tapes.

6. More effective ways to measure the growth of the church should be designed.

APPENDIX A (QUESTIONNAIRES)

APPENDIX B (COLLEGE DOCUMENTATIONS)

APPENDIX C (CHURCH DOCUMENTATIONS)

APPENDIX D (INTERVIEW RECORDS)

LIST OF REFERENCES

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Clemmons, William and Haster, Harvey. 1974. Growth through groups. Nashville: Broadman Press.

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